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BACKUS - Land Commissioner Joshua Stevenson obtained Cass County Board approval Tuesday, July 15, to use $594,000 from a state grant to purchase 400 acres of land from Potlatch Corp.

The purchase is contingent upon approval from Powers, Becker, Byron and Trelipe township boards where the acreages are located and will occur after surveys, title opinions and appraisals have been completed.

Funding comes from the three-eighths cent state sales tax for environmental improvements.

The purchases will give the county access from roads to several large tracts of county-administered land, Stevenson said. Some tracts also abut or cross marshlands and streams. He said he expects the purchases to be completed by October.

While Cass County trails have crossed state highways for years, the county has never until now obtained MnDOT special use permits for use of those sites for nighttime snowmobile crossing on trails. The board passed a resolution Tuesday to authorized an agreement with MnDOT for the permits.

Sawyer Timber Co. was the low bidder at $300 of four to win a contract to repair a washout on a recreational trail in Homebrook Township.

The land department sold 10,199 cords of timber to loggers for $225,2421.53 at a May 27 auction. Aspen sold for $24.70 per cord. Balsam poplar brought the lowest bids at 9.80 per cord and white spruce the highest at $36.40 per cord. Red Pine saw timber sold for $11.97 per board foot.

The commissioners endorsed a DNR plan to purchase 11.14 acres with 1,200 feet of shoreline on the east side of Little Woman Lake and the channel coming from Child Lake for an aquatic management area. The site has extensive wetland bog and wild rice beds.

They also endorsed a DNR plan to purchase 4.67 acres of land lying within the lakebed of Donut Lake and northwesterly from that and 14.39 acres of upland along Washburn Lake from David Harrington and Kristine Kolar. The parcels will become part of the Washburn Lake Aquatic Management Area.

The board approved a fourth conservation easement on Wabedo Lake that consolidates a shoreline area with three easements the board approved earlier. It includes 12 acres and 800 feet of shoreline.[[In-content Ad]]

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